Strength Matters
The Strength Matters podcast is a weekly show for health and fitness professionals who want the systems, tools, and resources to grow and scale a successful fitness business. Hosted by Head Coach Josh Kennedy and Strength Matters founder, James Breese.
Join the world’s leading experts in helping personal trainers and coaches uncover cutting-edge training solutions and share them with you.
Strength Matters is a system of training and education for fit pros and experienced enthusiasts who want to optimize performance and enhance their health span.
The central question that drives our work is, “How can we train smarter?” To answer that question, we like to talk about science-based ways, made simple, to solve practical health and fitness problems.
However, science doesn’t always have the answers. That’s why our work combines both science and practical real-world experience. What works in a textbook, doesn’t always work in real life.
This is why we like to talk about and share our client results with you… the good, and the bad, so that we can all learn from them, move forward to live, and perform better.
Strength Matters
The Ultimate Business Growth Formula for Gyms
In this episode, we delve into the groundbreaking formula that's set to revolutionize the way gyms and personal trainers approach business growth. Whether you're just starting out or looking to elevate your existing operations, James Breese shares an insightful, simplified strategy that promises to unlock unprecedented growth and success. Tune in as we dissect this formula, T x C x S, and explore actionable steps to drive traffic, boost conversions, and skyrocket sales!
Timeline Summary:
- [00:00:06] Introduction to the Growth Formula
- [00:00:39] Explaining T x C x S
- [00:01:00] Traffic: The Starting Point
- [00:02:21] Conversions: Turning Leads into Gold
- [00:07:35] Sales: The Art of Closing
Key Takeaways:
- Traffic, Conversion, Sales: Unpack the three critical components of the formula where attracting the right traffic, converting leads, and sealing the deal in sales define the growth trajectory of any business.
- Universal Applicability: Discover how this formula isn’t just for gyms but can revolutionize any business model, from personal training to even a shoe cleaning service.
- Lead Magnets and Conversion Optimization: Learn the importance of creating valuable content and resources to convert website visitors into potential customers.
- Offline Marketing Strategies: Recognize the value of optimizing offline strategies and referrals before diving into digital marketing expenses.
- Simplicity in Sales Process: Embrace a streamlined approach to the sales process, prioritizing automation and efficiency to enhance customer conversion and retention.
Links and Websites Mentioned :
Quotes:
"Business growth equals T times C times S. It's that simple." - James Breese
"Not all traffic is equal. Aim to convert the higher number into leads." - James Breese
"What do I do with this traffic? That's where conversions come into play." - James Breese
"The best things sometimes come from referrals and networking events." - James Breese
"We want to simplify the process... Let the automation do its thing." - Andrew Wallis
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[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media, Video, Print, Podcasts.
[00:00:06] Josh Kennedy: Today, we're talking about the ultimate, excuse me, business growth formula for gyms, that is the ultimate business growth formula for gyms. Sorry about the slight slip up there. James, you've come up with a beautiful new formula, which I think works very well.
[00:00:18] What, uh, what is
[00:00:20] James Breese: it? Well, I hope, I hope I have. I don't think, I don't think I've like stolen it from anybody or ethically stolen it. So. I hadn't seen it before. We were talking about this off air with Andrew. Just claim it. It's fine. Let's see what goes on there. So, okay. Business growth equals T times C times S.
[00:00:39] How about that? Excellent.
[00:00:41] Josh Kennedy: What are T, C and S?
[00:00:45] James Breese: So if you were I think it's irrespective. Whether you're a gym owner, personal trainer, a shoe cleaning company, right? If you want to be a shoe cleaning company, you can do this. This is applicable
[00:00:56] Josh Kennedy: to any business essentially, right?
[00:00:58] James Breese: But yeah, exactly. I think it really [00:01:00] is.
[00:01:00] So in order to grow your business, you need to have more traffic coming to your business, whether it's the shop or whether it's a website online, if you're online. So traffic is the first one is the T. Well, that traffic, you've got to convert them into leads. Okay, so the idea of like, not all traffic is equal, and you want to convert the higher number into leads, and that's the C, that's the conversion side of things.
[00:01:27] And then you want to convert those leads into sales, which is the ST times C times S. So traffic, conversions, sales. So you take traffic. Convert them into leads and you convert those leads into sales. That's our little formula. So that's our three pronged attract. Now, where does the traffic come from? It makes no difference.
[00:01:48] We just had a whole website on about Google traffic being the dominant factor. So if it's from Google, great. If it's from social media, great. If it's from referrals, it makes no difference. If it's a presentation, live in person events, [00:02:00] you've got that here. Traffic from where it comes from is irrelevant.
[00:02:04] But if it's online, focus on Google, but if you can still do the same thing outside, you can still drive traffic to your website or your business from networks and connections. So whatever you do, you're driving traffic to the business. What most people don't think about is, well, what do I do with this traffic, which is the conversion section?
[00:02:21] So. Again, not everyone is in a state to buy. Not everyone is in the state hungry to go and do something. They're in the learning phase. So, when they come to you, or you come to the, or they come to your website, because again, all roads lead to Rome, all roads lead to your website. When they come to your website, Are you providing relevant, useful content for them that they consume that you earn the right to capture that information from them, right?
[00:02:47] Have you got something that's of value to them? So in terms of a gym, because we're talking about gyms today, if they're coming to your website going, I want to use a gym, and in their head, They think they have a nutrition [00:03:00] problem. Do you have a nutritional guide that you can give to them? They can download and give some value to them to think about things, to consider you as an option.
[00:03:07] Because if they read and consume that and they go like your nutritional strategy, or if they like the way you've put something together and go, Well, these are pretty professional. They're going to potentially want to convert into a sale. Which is the next stage. So they're seeing and getting more information about you.
[00:03:22] So it's traffic, no matter the source. We help optimize the conversions on the website, because that's what we're optimizing conversions for. And then we have these conversions. We're going to optimize our sales process. And that is the three pronged attack I'm going for. Before we jump
[00:03:37] Josh Kennedy: into sales, I want to go to Andrew.
[00:03:39] Andrew, what would be, in your opinion, what would be some key strategies for gyms to improve their conversions? In
[00:03:46] Andrew Wallis: line with what James was saying, I think the important point for us to realise is the traffic temperature that we've got with these. Uh, individuals, these prospects come into our websites, you know, we'll have the, there'll be relatively [00:04:00] cold, uh, they could be warm or they could be hot.
[00:04:03] You know, they've made the decision that you are the, uh, the gym that they want to sign up to, and they just want to find out how to, how to sign up, but for the cold ones who are just in the, they know that they need to do something, but then maybe not at this, at this level. They're not quite ready to take the plunge, then that's where a lead magnet.
[00:04:23] If we've got some form of PDF, a download, a cheat sheet, a checklist, um, a started guide, even a workout, uh, potentially where we can collect their name and email address in exchange for this lead magnet, then we're able to build that relationship. Um, ongoing email follow up that we do, but and then the warm audience, I would suggest maybe there's a, it could be a free consultation, or it could be a free trial to 1 of the classes or sessions that you're running and that they can trial it before they buy.
[00:04:59] [00:05:00] But, uh, there would be the, the, um, the three aspects I'd be looking at in, in relation to
[00:05:05] Josh Kennedy: gyms. Nice. So obviously if you are, if people are going to your website, you can have a downloadable lead magnet, as you say, a PDF workout nutrition plan or something, but for gyms specifically, good idea, I guess, to have physical copies of those as well, right?
[00:05:17] In the, uh, in the gym for just people to just take
[00:05:20] James Breese: away with them. Exactly. So I'll just, I'll literally, yeah. So I've put my,
[00:05:24] Josh Kennedy: Have you got anything there? He runs away from the camera.
[00:05:26] James Breese: I run from the scene. Yeah, there you go. Classic. Oh,
[00:05:29] Josh Kennedy: there we go. There
[00:05:33] Andrew Wallis: we go. Bring it back a bit.
[00:05:36] Josh Kennedy: There we
[00:05:36] James Breese: go. We were talking about one of our clients yesterday, two of our clients, so Saski, saski4.
[00:05:43] com with her massage therapy business. And Yamina and the team and Reda from RZ Fitness, we're talking about brochures. So lead magnets can also be in terms of helping increase conversions, could be in a doctor's practice, they could be in a local chiropractor's office. So there's lots of lead magnets you can use to [00:06:00] capture information and do things.
[00:06:01] So to, to help you drive traffic to your website, it's more than just. Online, everyone thinks online, but sometimes the best things are referrals and from networking events. So my argument always is this is before you go to digital marketing and emphasizing on Facebook advertising and Google advertising, stuff like that.
[00:06:20] Yes, it's useful. And it's, it's definitely a part of the strategy. Are we optimizing our offline marketing strategies first and foremost because they are the most cost effective So we want cost effective maximize those three referrals first before we go anything else So traffic comes from a variety of sources.
[00:06:36] It comes from all the sources you can possibly imagine More than we probably mentioned today But the point is, where do you drive that traffic to? The website, the website then has need to be optimized for conversions to get them into leads and to warm them up and to educate them about what you do. And then from there, you then drive them to a sales page, which is relevant to their needs.
[00:06:57] What do they want? Personal training, massage [00:07:00] therapy, whatever it is you want. They've got to focus on here and it's useful to them, but you need to capture information then. So maybe we talk about conversions and what we're converting people in is when they opt in for something You need to know about what they want.
[00:07:12] What are they interested in? Is it weight loss? Is it getting stronger? Is it bulking up whoever whatever it is, you know that information you can follow up with them With timely, relevant content, not generic spam crap. Yep.
[00:07:25] Josh Kennedy: Nice. Okay. So we've improved our traffic, uh, via whatever way we want, whether that's website or footfall or whatever it is, we've improved our conversions.
[00:07:35] What are the key strategies for improving sales?
[00:07:38] James Breese: Having a specific formula and a strategy. Use the same system, time in, time out. So
[00:07:45] Josh Kennedy: just like, are we talking scripted
[00:07:47] James Breese: here? Maybe a little bit. No template. Um, framework I think is more a better way to talk about it. And we are gonna give away our strategy call framework at some point.
[00:07:57] So standby with this. But if you go [00:08:00] to our website and you work with us at the end of each of our podcast, we always say, Hey, do you wanna. Free strategy call with Strength Matters, it's a much more nicer way to go about it. So when we're talking about gyms, again, put Mill fitness.co at UK is a good example of a website we've put together.
[00:08:14] If you go to Bruce Miller's website and see what we are doing, we're going to a get started page, which then leads to one form and we decide whether they're going for gym membership or small group personal training. Gym membership is an automated system to set up and to enroll them because it's an easy, it's a open gym model.
[00:08:33] And then we have on small group personal training, it goes to a strategy call. So we want people on a strategy call for personal training, small group personal training, semi private, all that type of stuff. What's your sales process? For us, strategy call, discovery session, sale. In person, not automated. For Open Gym membership, it's, it's an online on enrollment process because they're uh, you know, they're not worth as much.
[00:08:58] So, for me, it's always that sort [00:09:00] of formula. Andrew, anything you want to comment on that?
[00:09:02] Andrew Wallis: Other than that, I just love the simplicity of it. You know, we've seen so many complicated, convoluted systems and processes that gyms have in play. Or they'll hide their pricing and they'll want somebody to call, which sucks up so much of your time then to deal with those inquiries that having it laid out in a simple systemized process is Um, just makes complete sense and it's, you know, let the automation do its thing then.
[00:09:32] Fantastic.
[00:09:32] Josh Kennedy: There we go. Any, any final thoughts, James, before we wrap up?
[00:09:35] James Breese: That's it. Business growth equals T times C times S traffic conversions sales.
[00:09:43] Andrew Wallis: And I think I love it. I love the simplicity of this because then we can, um, we can dial in, you know, being a United fan and look and being excited about dead Brailsford with his marginal gains.
[00:09:54] We can, we can model that with looking at your traffic. How do you tweak that? [00:10:00] How do you tweak your conversions? How do you tweak your sales? And overall, the synergy behind that just
[00:10:05] James Breese: explodes. And that's it. That's probably the most important bit, actually. That's probably the most important thing, actually.
[00:10:10] I forgot to say this. So like when we're working with clients, we try and think from a simplistic, simplistic point of view, where's the problem? Most people have a traffic issue. They don't have enough people coming to them in the first place. Right? So the first thing we're going to try and fix this, but if you haven't got traffic coming to you, you can't really optimize for conversions because you don't know what's going to work or not.
[00:10:34] So we almost, first thing is, is we always look at is try increasing traffic. Then we go, okay, we've fixed the traffic issue. We're not turning on advertising to go to it yet. We're just talking organic traffic and referrals, right? But then we start optimizing for conversions and then when we got then we start looking at the sales process So it sounds silly but like we want to get a quick win to all our clients So traffic first fix that optimize the conversions as much as we can and then optimize the sales process because if it's a [00:11:00] closure rate then it's Fantastic.
[00:11:03] Josh Kennedy: Thank you so much guys. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate review and subscribe. And if you want help getting more clients or patients, then booking for your free 15 minute strategy call with us by going to strength manners. com forward slash strategy.
